PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: Landry's been a good catch for Dolphins

Saturday

Nov 25, 2017 at 2:50 PMNov 25, 2017 at 2:53 PM

No player in NFL history has caught more passes over his first four years in the league than Miami's Jarvis Landry (355 and counting). The Patriots will face Landry and the Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., Brandin Cooks and Kelvin Benjamin were all selected in the first round of a 2014 NFL Draft that was rich in talent at the wide receiver position.

None of them, however, has exhibited the durability or caught as many passes as a wide receiver the Miami Dolphins scooped up in the second round of that draft.

Then again, no one in NFL history has caught as many passes in his first four years in the league as the 63rd overall choice – the 12th wide receiver – selected in that draft.

Making the 343rd reception of his career against Oakland in the eighth game of this season, Jarvis Landry – a college teammate of Beckham’s at Louisiana State University – set the record for most receptions in the first four years of an NFL career, eclipsing the 342 Anquan Boldin hauled in with the Arizona Cardinals from 2003-2006.

The 5-foot-11, 203-pounder enters Sunday’s game with the Patriots at Gillette Stadium at 355 receptions and counting, 67 of them (third in the league behind Antonio Brown’s 70 with Pittsburgh and Larry Fitzgerald’s 69 with Arizona) coming this year.

“He is an extremely good player,” Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said. “(He’s a) very versatile guy. They’ll move him all around. He has extremely strong hands, great run after catch, very elusive, quickness and he’s very savvy. So he’s just a guy that they can put in a lot of different positions, a guy they can put in a lot of different roles and expect him to produce at a very high level.”

A two-time Pro Bowler who is due to become an unrestricted free agent in 2018, Landry has made his mark in Miami as one of six Dolphins to post consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, his 1,157 receiving yards in 2015 followed by his 1,136 last year putting him in the company of Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, Irving Fryar, Brian Hartline and Brandon Marshall.

With just 567 yards through 10 games this season (only 8.5 yards per reception), Landry is on pace to finish with 907, which would fall short of making him the first Dolphin to ever hit 1,000 three years in a row.

With those 67 receptions, though, Landry is on pace to finish the season with 107, which would challenge the franchise-record 110 he hauled in two years ago. While his major impact is obviously on offense, he’s contributed in the return game as well, returning 10 punts for 77 yards (a 7.7-yard aver age).

“They have two good returners, Landry and (Jakeem) Grant,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said.

In six games against the Patriots, Landry has caught 39 passes (in 56 targets) for 453 and one touchdown.

“I think there’s a large trust factor with him and the quarterbacks that have played with him,” said Patricia. “It’s a guy obviously that understands the game plan week in week out, someone we have tremendous respect for and his ability to just read defenses, read coverage.

“He’s seen a lot of different cover ages. He’s seen a lot of different ways that people play him in particular and he’s been able to adjust so that he keeps his production at a high level. That’s kind of the reason why he’s so versatile in that standpoint and so valuable to an offense for Coach (Dolphins head coach Adam) Gase and Coach (offensive coordinator) Clyde Christensen.”

Getting to know you: The Patriots and Dolphins will meet twice in a span of three games, facing each other again on Monday night, Dec. 11, at Hard Rock Stadium.

“I thought that was pretty unique, strange,” safety Duron Harmon said of the schedule. “Hey, it’ll give us a chance to know that we’re going to play this (team) again really soon so while you’re watching film notice that you might not see (something) this week, but you might see it two weeks after the game.”

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